HM Treasury

Investment: Fees and Charges

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the transparency of costs charged to investors by asset managers based and regulated in the United Kingdom.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.This question has been passed on to the FCA. They will reply directly to the noble Lord by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Kenya: Mau Mau

Lord Luce: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the planned monument dedicated to those who were tortured during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s has been opened in Nairobi; and if so, what was the cost to the United Kingdom public purse of that monument; what wording is inscribed on it; and what the purpose of that monument is.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: On 6 June 2013, the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the right hon. the Lord Hague of Richmond, informed Parliament that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would settle the Mau Mau claims brought by Leigh Day on behalf of 5,228 Kenyans. This settlement included a commitment of support towards construction of a memorial in Nairobi to the victims of torture and ill-treatment during the colonial era.The UK worked with the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, the Nairobi Governor’s Office, and the National Museums of Kenya to make sure the proposed memorial is as inclusive as possible. The Overseas Service Pensioners’ Association was also consulted. The purpose of the memorial is to promote reconciliation and remember all those that were victims of torture and ill-treatment.The ‘Memorial to the Victims of Torture and Ill-Treatment during the Colonial Era (1952-1963)’ was inaugurated in Nairobi on 12 September 2015 at a final cost of £90,000. The inscriptions on the memorial are attached.



Inscription on Mau Mau memorial
(Word Document, 18.54 KB)

NATO: Russia

Lord Luce: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NATO has a policy concerning the access of Russian ships to NATO ports.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: Access to ports in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Member countries is the responsibility of national authorities. NATO Allies can and do coordinate with NATO on the transit of ships but NATO does not set policy.

International Decade for People of African Descent

Baroness Young of Hornsey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to mark the UN International Decade for People of African Descent.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: The British Government has no specific plans to mark the UN International Decade for People of African Descent. However, we remain strongly committed to combating racial discrimination, xenophobia and racial intolerance. We actively work to tackle all forms of racism, both domestically and internationally. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has in the past highlighted the solid progress we continue to make on fighting racism.The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world in place to protect communities from hostility, violence and bigotry. We keep it under review to ensure that it remains effective and appropriate in the face of new and emerging threats. Key legislation includes specific offences for inciting hatred on the grounds of race, religion, belief and sexual orientation; separate racially and religiously aggravated offences; and powers for the courts to increase the sentence of an offender convicted of a crime where hostility towards the victim was shown to be based on their disability, race, religion, belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity.

Department of Health

Cancer: Drugs

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty’s Government why patients in England cannot access the drug Docetaxel, in contrast to patients in Scotland.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body which, for England, makes decisions on the clinical and cost effectiveness of products based on thorough assessment of the best available evidence. NICE has recommended docetaxel for the treatment of hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer (where the disease becomes unresponsive to hormone treatment). It has not appraised docetaxel for use alongside hormone treatment.In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners in England to make funding decisions on drugs and treatments based on the available evidence. Although docetaxel is not licensed for this indication, there is no funding, legal or regulatory barrier to prescribing drugs off-licence. Where clinically appropriate, off-licence prescribing is safe and legal and most clinicians regularly prescribe in this way.

Hospital Beds

Lord Smith of Leigh: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to introduce requirements for Clinical Commissioning Groups with patients in acute hospitals in other areas to prioritise those patients to prevent bed-blocking.

Lord Prior of Brampton: NHS England has advised that it does not currently have plans to introduce requirements on clinical commissioning groups to prioritise patients in one area over another.However, NHS England is working to improve patient flow, for example through the Urgent and Emergency Care Review, which proposes a radical transformation in the way services are provided to deliver a more sustainable urgent and emergency care system, delivering care closer to home whenever it is safe and appropriate to do so.NHS England has also recently published guidance on Transforming urgent and emergency care services in England to help frontline providers and commissioners deliver safer, faster and better urgent and emergency care to patients of all ages, collaborating in networks that cross traditional boundaries in order to deliver best practice. A copy of the guidance is attached.



NHS England Urgent Care Guidance
(PDF Document, 896.85 KB)

NHS: Working Hours

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the comments of the President of the Royal College of Physicians, reported on 14 October, that their plan for a seven-day NHS will require more doctors, more funding, and increased provision of services currently provided by hospitals during the working week.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number and cost of extra doctors, nurses, therapists and diagnostic staff required for seven-day working in the NHS.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The Government is investing £10 billion in the NHS Five Year Forward View which includes developing a framework for how seven day services can be delivered sustainably and affordably, where this makes a clinical difference to outcomes.Implementing seven day services will involve different approaches in different areas, not least because current levels of service provision at weekends currently vary between hospitals. All areas will implement in the way that makes sense for them, minimising additional costs and maximising opportunities for using existing resources better.It will be for local providers and their Local Education and Training Boards to develop workforce plans for delivering seven day services in hospitals which will make the best use of staff skills and expertise. There may be additional staff needed, including doctors, and the Department is working with NHS England and Health Education England to make sure we have the workforce we need, including looking at new working patterns and roles such as physician associates.In order to provide safe, high-quality urgent and emergency care services seven days a week, NHS England recommended that hospitals prioritise implementation of four of the 10 clinical standards agreed by their ‘NHS Services, Seven Days a Week’ Forum. These ensure that patients who have urgent and emergency hospital care needs will have access to the same level of consultant assessment and review, diagnostic tests and consultant-led interventions seven days a week. The Government will ensure that by March 2017 a quarter of the population will have access to care that meets these standards and, by March 2020, there will be complete coverage for the whole of England. This means that hospitals will have to increase their provision of services in key specialties at the weekend if they are not currently meeting these standards.Although we are prioritising the standards which will have the biggest impact on improving patient care at weekends, we expect all hospitals to work towards embedding all ten clinical standards by 2020.

Northern Ireland Office

Defamation: Northern Ireland

Lord Lexden: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Defamation Act 2013 can be applied in Northern Ireland through a legislative consent motion by the Northern Ireland Assembly, without any further legislation by Parliament.

Lord Dunlop: A Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) consents to legislation being undertaken by the UK Parliament to extend to a part of the UK where the subject-matter of the legislation is devolved. An LCM cannot of itself extend existing UK Parliament legislation. As the law on defamation is a devolved issue, this is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Productivity

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of figures from the Office for National Statistics on the United Kingdom's productivity as compared to other G7 countries, what steps are being taken to increase productivity.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Closing the productivity gap represents a real opportunity for the UK to raise its living standards. In July the Chancellor published “Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation”. This report outlines a number of policies designed to improve UK productivity over the course of this parliament.Key new measures in the government’s productivity plan include:A reformed planning system, with streamlined ‘zonal’ system for brownfield sites, and measures to ensure more land is made available for house building;Simplifying and streamlining further education qualifications and inviting local areas to participate in the reshaping and commissioning of local provision;A network of prestigious Institutes of Technology, focused on delivering the higher level skills employers demand;Measures to sharpen incentives for providing outstanding teaching to university students and to open the higher education market to more new entrants;A Digital Transformation Plan to support the adoption of digital technologies across the economy;A joint FCA/PRA New Bank Unit to promote competition in banking; andBuilding stronger trading links with emerging markets, and mobilising the whole of government behind exporting. These policies build on the productivity improving measures announced in the Summer Budget, examples of which include:Cutting the UK’s Corporation Tax rate to 18%, the lowest in the G20;Setting the Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever permanent level;Creating a Roads Fund through reforming Vehicle Excise Duty for new cars;Funding new apprenticeships through a levy on large employers, which will ensure that those who prioritise training get more out than they put in;Putting higher education funding on a more sustainable footing, with maintenance loans replacing grants;Building a Northern Powerhouse and ensuring the productive potential of all parts of the UK is realised; andReforming Network Rail to ensure it can deliver a faster, more reliable and more efficient railway. “Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation” can be found on the GOV.UK website, which is attached.



Productivity Plan
(PDF Document, 1019.81 KB)